Beyond The Rim
by mtfrosty
Summary: Even stars burn out, but Anakin Skywalker swears he'll see as many of them as he can and return to tell about them. More details inside... First up: Anakin discovers an impossible planet inhabited by a kid digging up plants.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _This is basically a for-funsies fic that is very loosely inspired by "Shades of Stories, Shards of Time", a poem written by Sophia the Scribe that celebrates the themes, characters, lessons, and truths found in various stories and events throughout history. This fic is shamelessly plotless and is, in its simplest form, the journey Anakin takes as he visits planets and places in "unchartered space." I'm sure that as you read, you'll figure out how I've structured things to fit my purpose. ;)_

_The story unfolds in short-ish scenes as Anakin encounters other worlds and people from other beloved stories and learns valuable lessons along the way. In this sense, it is something of a crossover fic that cannot be categorized under one book or movie. Hope you all enjoy!_

_(All of the quotations at the beginnings and ends of the chapters are directly from the books/movies and are not mine... feel free to guess where they come from!)_

* * *

"_I'm a pilot, you know, and someday I'm going to fly away from this place…"_

***oo***

Anakin Skywalker is the best pilot in the galaxy, and not only by his own admission. Those who know him best swear it's true and those who don't know him at all trust in what word of mouth brings them. Rumors are often just rumors, but stories are more than rumors and what can't be written into stone must be shared and shared some more. Histories are written by victors (for the most part), but even Average Joe has a story to tell.

The Skywalker kid has somehow made his way into many people's stories. Slave. Spice Smuggler. Mercenary. Ghost. Kid. Wizard. He appears with many faces and names.

And then he disappears. There are no rumors as to where he got off to. No more stories, no more hearsay. The man is gone.

Fittingly (though _some_ would call it coincidence), the galaxy dissolves into war soon after. Skywalker becomes a sought-after target by both sides, but oddly enough the Jedi Order refuses to participate in the hunt. Something about it being pointless. Now _that's_ interesting. Does one of them _know_ something, or do they all just have more important things to do?

Within the walls of the Temple and the even more secluded walls of some of its emptier levels, a dark-skinned Jedi wonders why it's so pointless. His companion, significantly younger and far more devious, shrugs and offers him a little half-smile.

"Something about visiting the stars."

"_All_ of them?"

"He'll be back eventually."


	2. Chapter 2

"_Where are the people?"_

"_People? There are six or seven of them, I believe, in existence. I caught sight of them years ago. But you never know where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, which hampers them a great deal."_

***oo***

Space has a lot of room. It's a fact so obvious that hardly anyone ever thinks to ponder it, but out past the Outer Rim there is absolutely nothing else to think about unless the spaciousness of space is first considered. Considered, processed, and dealt with. A person could easily be overwhelmed. Anakin is only excited.

"Stars' end," he mutters. Then he laughs. "But there is no end!"

He's still grinning and occasionally chuckling at the thought when a tiny blip of a planet appears on his radar. It hardly even registers (it's barely even an _asteroid_), but he heads towards it anyways. When his borrowed/stolen/hijacked/remodeled-and-so-much-better starfighter nears it, he slows and begins to circle it just to be sure that what he's looking at is, in fact, _real._

This planet shouldn't even have an orbit, let alone a _fixed_ orbit. It doesn't have the mass and yet it's behaving as if it does. Anakin knows how space works. How ships fly, how particles move, how propulsion propels, how much damage solar flares can do, and _how planets move_.

How stars burn. So many stars…

But that can wait. This planet makes no sense and he needs to know _why._

He wonders if it's inhabited. As he brings his fighter closer and continues to circle, a movement on the surface catches his eye. When he recognizes what it is, he can only laugh. Not the excited sort he'd indulged in only minutes earlier, but something more hysterical and amazed.

It's a boy with a shovel whose size in proportion to the planet he stands on only makes the entire picture that much more ludicrous. Anakin estimates it to be maybe, _maybe_, three grav-ball grids in circumference. A walkable distance of just under two hundred meters. A planet so tiny that the only explanation as to its orbit is that it has to be made of the densest material in existence.

Whatever.

Technicalities can be set aside for now, because the boy looks to be digging up plants and making it look easy. Apparently the densest material in existence is also disproportionately soft and lightweight. Or this planet's sole inhabitant possesses unusual strength. He wonders if the kid speaks Basic.

"Um… hi," he says after he's landed and left the cockpit (breathable, non-existent atmosphere… and, somehow, gravity… _huh_).

The kid ceases his steady motion and peaks over his shoulder. Spiky blonde hair sways from side to side above a beady set of bright, focused eyes. "Hello."

He _sounds_ like a normal kid. Anakin smiles a little. "I was just passing by and thought I'd check your planet out. You know, just to see what it's like."

This garners a small smile. "It's the only one of its kind. You wanna help me out? My arms are a little tired."

Thrown a little by the abrupt request, he hesitates before nodding. "Uh, sure, yeah. I can do that. What am I supposed to do? Are you digging up all of these plants?" They are little stubby things, barely a quarter of a meter tall, pale green and just beginning to sprout leaves. "Don't you want some plants around here?"

The kid lifts a hand and swipes it through his hair, dislodging the dirt there. He's been at this for a while it seems. "Not all of them. Just the baobabs. They're the shinier ones. The others can stay."

Anakin lifts a brow. "_What_ is a baobab?"

That small smile is back. "Do you know anything about plants?" He gestures pointedly at two sproutlings to their left. "There, you can dig those two up. Make sure to go deep, otherwise they'll come back." Once Anakin has set himself to digging, the kid continues explaining what a baobab is. "They look small now, but once they grow up they kill everything else. Suck up all the water and take up every bit of dirt there is. And they get HUGE! If my planet wasn't so strong, three of them would crush it to pieces. One is a bugger to get rid of. Once I had _two._ Took me months."

The kid's face is all scrunched up in disgust and pained memory and Anakin has to chuckle at it. "I know this guy who's really into plants. I bet you he could find a place where these things could live without killing anything else…"

"Really?"

There's an astonishing amount of hope there and Anakin stops his work to look at his host directly. "Yes," he says. "Really. Seriously. This guy is _really_ into plants. If he could, he'd probably try to fit one of these things in his apartment, but from the sounds of it they might get a little too big –"

"Take that one."

Anakin blinks. "Pardon?"

The kid points at the shiny sprout that Anakin has just removed. The seed is still attached and the whole things remains in one piece. "That one. Your ship looks fast, and it's not broken like my other friend's was…"

"Friend? There's another person who lives here?"

"No. I met him a while back. He was a grown-up, though, and I had to explain certain things to him a _gazillion_ times before he understood them. Still, he was nice. Just too old." The kid is bending down as he talks and scooping up the young baobab with gentle hands. "These trees are strong. It will live if you have some water for it, and I can send some dirt with you. If your friend finds a place for it then you can come back and take some more of them. I'll… be happy if they don't have to kill anymore."

Anakin had been thinking about the friend that was too old and grown-up and why the kid's description seemed to _make sense_, when he catches the last bit. _Don't have to kill anymore…_ "Can I ask you something?"

The smile reappears and grows larger. "Sure! I don't get asked things very often."

"Are you lonely here?"

The smile disappears and dusty eyebrows furrow as he thinks. Then the beady eyes seem to get even beadier as they zero in on Anakin's face. "Are you old too?"

For some reason the question hurts. "Not by most standards."

"This friend of yours. The one who likes plants. Is he ever lonely?"

It's like talking to Obi-wan, except for the shifts in topic are hardly subtle. "Doesn't seem like it, no."

"Then why would you ask me if _I_ am? That seems like a silly question. If you ask a question, make it a good one." The kid actually looks agitated now and begins to pace. "And what's a _standard_? Sounds like something a businessman would say. I met one once. He was always counting things. Thought he owned all of the stars –"

"No one owns the stars," Anakin interrupts, vehement. It makes him angry that anyone could think such a thing, and yet the galaxy is divided into systems and quadrants and sectors and he supposes there is some implication of ownership there.

_Slave_.

The boy is staring at him now with wide eyes. "That's what I told him," he whispers. Then he steps closer and peers up at Anakin. "You're strange. It's like you're old and not old at the same time."

"I told you I'm not old."

"Why did you get upset about the stars?"

Anakin crosses his arms and stares back. "Why did you tell him they couldn't be owned?"

That small smile again. This _child_ is starting to remind him of that Jedi troll back on Coruscant, and the difference in age baffles him. "I never said they _couldn't_ be owned, just that no one owns them. I own this planet. These flowers are mine and I treat them kindly. The baobabs are mine too, but I'm giving that one to you so that your friend can hopefully own it better than I have. If he does, then he can have all of my baobabs. You see? It's not a bad thing to be owned. Some people just aren't people that should own anything."

"Or any_one._" It's out before he can stop it and he wants to smack himself, especially when those lightly-dusted brows lift in sudden, sad understanding. Perceptive little chosski.

"Hmmm…" The kid stares back in silence for a few seconds and then turns with an excited wave. "Come on! We should watch a sunset."

This is probably the weirdest conversation he's ever had. "You can just choose when you want to watch one?" He's actually almost jealous if it's true.

"Like I said, my planet is the only one of its kind. I've been to one with a sad, skinny man and a lamp that he was constantly turning on and off. He actually made more sense than the others, but he didn't realize his planet had more than double the sunsets that mine has! Can you believe it? Still serious about the wrong thing! Too old…" They reach a chair and the kid acknowledges it with a grand sweep of his arm. "Take a seat, honored guest."

Grinning a little, Anakin sits. "Okaaay…"

The kid (still nameless…) turns and actually grins, the corners of his mouth twitching as if he's about to laugh. He's staring at the overly-curved horizon where this system's sun (its _star_) is just beginning to disappear. "Here it comes…"

And it does. Brilliantly and quickly. The colors change and fade into each other within the space of a few minutes and Anakin is left with just a brief surge of joy as a memory. Then the kid is pulling on his sleeve and urging him forward. "Come on! We'll watch another one! You know I once watched forty-four of them in a single day…"

"Really?" he asks. "Why?"

The kid pauses, actually stopping to consider his answer. "Sad and lonely are two different things. Sunsets are wonderful when you're sad…" He keeps walking and Anakin follows. "Is it helping?"

Anakin smiles at the kid's back. "Your planet is beautiful." He doesn't receive an answer, but he can _feel _the kid's joy and short burst of pride. "You know, my planet has _two_ suns." Odd. He's never identified Tatooine as _his_. And why should he? Nothing good has ever come from that disgusting bucket of sand…

Until now. Because he's definitely _bragging._

This draws the boy up short and he turns with wide eyes. Wide enough that Anakin thinks he catches a flash of green hidden in their depths, the natural color their beady-ness must be hiding. "_Two?_" the kid echoes before grinning broadly. "That's _twice_ the color, _twice_ the laughter, _twice_ of everything!"

"Laughter?"

His oh so young (but is he?) host stops and plants the chair once more. "You can't hear it? Suns are always happy, like that's what they were meant for."

"My planet isn't a happy planet."

Without hesitation, the kid says, "That's why there's two of them. Now watch. This one will be brighter, because we got the angle right this time. Sometimes, _sometimes_, angles and numbers and _standards_ matter. Just sometimes, though." Soft, frazzled hair flops to the side when he turns to look at Anakin. "Did I use that word right? _Standard_?"

On _this _planet, that word doesn't seem to fit, but he nods absently. "Yes. Here it comes."

The kid is right. It's _bright_. They both are laughing in delight before it's over and soon enough they're up and walking again. Anakin loses track, but when he finally decides he has to leave, his new friend hands him the baobab and a pouch of dirt and walks him to his starfighter.

"I'm Anakin Skywalker, by the way. Do you have a name?"

That stupid small smile again. "Probably. Do I need one?"

"If you don't give me one, then I'll have to come up with something weird."

The kid lets loose with a short peal of laughter. "Okay! That's fine with me."

Anakin starts to feel annoyed, but then he just shrugs. "Whatever." He takes a final look at this small, impossible planet. "My planet is full of sand, not soft soil like this one."

The kid frowns for the first time. "I don't like sand either… but you said it has two suns. We watched forty-seven sunsets just now."

Anakin blinks. "How long have I been here?"

Those tiny green eyes roll and the frown disappears. "Numbers again. I don't _get _you… but I like you. Come see me again, okay? Please?"

Anakin, wisely, promises no such thing. As to _numbers_…

Searching through his small bag of belongings, he comes upon his logbook and opens to a blank page. He smirks as he writes "NUMBERS" at the very top. Beneath it, he pens the first entry on the list: 47.

***oo***

_"What is it that you do here?"_

_"I sort travelers into bundles of a thousand. I dispatch the trains that carry them, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left."_

_"What a hurry they're in. What are they looking for?"_

_"Not even the engineer on the locomotive knows."_


End file.
